I finished playing all 8 starter decks on normal with an unbroken win streak, but no perfect runs.
My first run was the closest due to inexperience and using the first challenge coin (only common cards can be equipped, in exchange for extra upgrades + Void Stones). I had 108 pending Threat vs my 100 health when I beat that first Vault on the last possible turn.
The next-to-last run I found this crazy card and added the Swift Knight unique Void Stone:
The Cycle upgrade makes it effectively an infinite loop until you run out of corruption to spend, unless your hand fills up with unplayable afflictions. I equipped it for the Vault but didn’t end up casting it.
And here’s my latest Vault kill with by far the biggest hit:
That 1-cost Kingdom Comes card requires two 3-cost setups and shuffles to summon it, plus I had the 88 corruption and debuffs. My equipped spell added 50% Rage, Vulnerability from an artifact, and Deathstrike to double-hit (8 Soultithe Threshold requirement also always met by an artifact). I could have saved my spare Souls for a higher score instead of spending them on the health removal.
The first artifact I picked up that run reduced Soultithe (a self damage status) by 1 per turn, which probably saved me a lot of grief with that deck. I eventually got a lot of passive block generation, bonus corruption for adding and removing Soultithe, and status removal when saving energy. Somehow I lost a 150% Rage card halfway through. I suspect I didn’t read some event text and accidentally traded it for a Void Stone. Luckily the Daughter gains a lot of momentum anyway.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy playing the Enlightened’s streak management style and deck/discard manipulation, but that was fun too. For example: you can Sift and then Recur a card to get it into your hand without waiting to “draw” it, which avoids enemy buffs that happen when drawing afflictions and lets you destroy the annoying cards more safely.
Overall I love the game. Even though Normal difficulty is relatively easy, it was still very satisfying. I look forward to trying some riskier builds in the future, the quicker Daily mode, harder difficulties, and other challenge coins. Highly recommended.